Are you talking to yourself?

After this reading, I have come to learn two things: 1) Elbow’s theories sound a lot like Penn State’s Journalism program and 2) When I write I already do some of the things he mentions about his ideas of the writing process.

During my time at Penn State, if there was one thing I learned from almost all of my Journalism professors it was this: If you can’t write... don’t (Elbow mentions this as his last point of writing). Some people like to call this “writer’s block”. If you’re stuck, get up, walk around, talk to people (talk to sources), go grab a coffee, watch TV - whatever – do something that will allow your thoughts to collect or organize so you can write efficiently. As a Journalist, this process is sped up quickly with the restriction of deadlines, but if you have the time – take it. That is the single, most important lesson I took with me upon graduation from the School of Communications. Nothing will get accomplished if you still and lull over a blank document. I’ve done it, and it only creates frustration and keeps me from getting my “beauty sleep”.

Another Elbow-Penn State relation I found was the idea of “writing a lot”. I’ve connected the sitting-down-and-writing-whatever-comes-to-your-head process with the getting-as-much-information-you-can idea when talking to a source for an article. Today, most Journalists use tape recorders so they can catch everything their source is telling them, which makes it a lot easier to be able to write more when you actually sit down and write the article. But whether you’re writing or taping, by getting as much information as you can it will actually allow you to write more. For me - with this information, when I begin to write I’ll jot down sentences all over the document – use this quote here, that quote there – it’s not a completed story but little pieces of it that, if the holes were filled, would eventually create a roughly drafted story.

And lastly, after reading this theory of “cooking as writing”, I can’t believe that I actually do some of these strategies his mentions (when I thought doing them was weird). As previously, I get up and walk away from my computer when I can’t write. It’s too frustrating for me to sit and try to write when I know I can’t. Also, for example, my friends/ roommates always thought it was weird (or I was weird, who knows!) that I talked to myself while writing. I do it all the time! It’s more or less a therapy thing for me. If I have all these ideas bouncing around in my head and I just can’t seem to write something, the nerves from my brain to my hand just aren't connecting... I’ll start talking out loud. It allows me to actually hear what I’m thinking and be able to decide if that’s what I really wanted to write down on paper. I also always thought I was crazy when I “talked to myself” but Elbow reassured me that I’m not!

Blog one

I found the first chapter interesting. I had a creative writing class in high school, and we would do free writing exercises at the beginning of every class. Free writing has helped me with some of my previous writings. It is very helpful when you are not sure where to begin writing. Free writing can be therapeutic. It gives you the opportunity to express yourself without anyone judging you. The purpose of free writing is to help us write fluently. No one has to read your work. It is personal. Everyone should try it.
The second chapter was very informative. Elbow makes some great points. Don’t write until you know what you are going to write. Brainstorming is something everyone should do before they begin writing. Making outlines and jotting things down is also helpful. Collect all of your thoughts together before beginning to write. I find that making an outline and writing my ideas down on paper helps me with the writing process. You are basically preparing yourself for what you are about to tackle. This is a great way to keep your thoughts organized.
Elbow has great advice for people who are having difficulties with writing. I like that Elbow shared his personal experiences in his book. It gives everyone that thinks they can’t write some hope. He gives us several writing techniques to get started. He recommends that you free write whenever you get stumped. Just write down everything you know about the topic. I am going to try this technique when I am unsure what to write. I like that he says to stop worrying about the grammar and choice of words. When you are done writing, you can correct grammar and change words. I believe he says, “Stop trying to write well.” I think people try to make their writings perfect the first time. It is the person who writes several drafts who creates the better papers.
I like that Elbow incorporates his own free writing journal entries in his book. It shows us that you can write anything in your own free writing. You lose some control during free writing. It gives you the opportunity to truly be open. After all the free writing, it is time to edit. This is the last step in the growth process. This is the time to rearrange any phrases and use more sophisticated words. “One needs to be open to bad writing in order to get to good writing.” I have to agree with Elbow completely. It is the only way to improve our writing skills.

Elbow’s idea of writing without outlines goes against what all of my English teachers said to do in high school. We were always told to do an outline first for our papers and in several instances it was due a few weeks before the actual paper. Most of the time, we were supposed to stick to this outline (although some teachers didn’t mind if you deviated from the outline). I always hated making outlines. It was hard for me to come up with the information, sequence it, and list it in a flowing way when I had not even started the actual process of writing. In the past few years I have tried to outline a few pieces, but I normally end up just jotting down a few ideas and then I begin writing. I do like to have a couple of ideas first, either in my head or written down, but I don’t like to brainstorm the entire paper. In this way, I resemble Elbow’s approach by letting the words flow from the beginning. This way I am not limiting myself with my basic knowledge and giving the words the opportunity to grow. (Although I never thought of it like this before.)
However, I do have problems picking up a pen and writing a paper nonstop. I can write and write and write, but if I encounter a roadblock, I go back and edit. I probably never finish a first draft without editing it several times. I will write a paragraph, go back and reread it, edit some of the words, possibly change the order, and then I will continue writing. I am constantly rereading and editing as I go along. I wonder if Elbow’s idea would be more efficient. It probably would. However, I do not know if I would be able to change my ways at his point. I am willing to try, but no guarantees.
I like the idea of freewriting to find a subject/topic for a paper. I have never sat down and done freewriting for this, but I think it would be beneficial. I have started writing about topics and realized that I didn’t agree with it, or preferred another topic, or whatever. There have been moments when I had an epiphany and realized that I should be writing about something else entirely. It is frustrating though because I always felt as though I had been wasting my time with the first subject. It always seemed as though if I had planned or outlined, I would have arrived at the second topic first. I like the idea that I had to explore the first topic to reach the second.
The thing that struck me the most in Elbow’s writing was the idea of throwing words away. On page 29, it states “…you’ll invest too much of yourself…you’ll care too much about them; you’ll make some phrases that you’ll really love; you won’t be able to throw them away.” This is something that I constantly struggle with while writing. I love the way a certain scene sounds that I wrote or a description and I won’t want to throw it away. I love to write fiction(short stories and I am working on a young adult novel), but I feel so invested in these words that even when I change the plot or realize that the character is moving n a different direction it is very hard for me to toss words out. I try forever trying to fit it in somewhere or change it a smidge to fit the new direction of the piece, but it never does it justice in the end. I have to give it up. I grieve for the lost words for awhile, but even then, I remove them from the story and store them somewhere else just incase I find their purpose later. I STILL can’t completely toss the words out. I am trying hard to work on this, but it is my biggest challenge. Sometimes the words are perfect and I did invest so much of myself in them that I still fall back into my routine. Elbow is like my mentor telling me, “just let them go, better words will come, its okay.” But, it is still hard to listen.

Hmmmmm....Really??

My first response to the very first two sentences in Elbow, “The most effective way I know to improve your writing is to do freewriting exercise regularly. At least three times a week.” was I bet he doesn’t have children. This shocked me because I knew that I was supposed to be concentrating on learning about writing, yet my response had nothing to do with writing. My inner voice started out doubting what I was about to read.

But then, I found time to be thoroughly alone while reading, and then I truly began to enjoy what Elbow had to say. I think that we, as a society, do not put enough emphasis on writing. Not many people understand what it means to write well. Many people never write beyond what they have to do for work. And let’s face it—even those of us who are pursuing fields in English don’t write beyond our assignments.

I admit, I do not write very often. Until now, I have felt that I don’t have anything good enough to put down onto the page, so why waste my time? Now I know, according to Elbow (3), that it is okay to not have an idea or a concrete focus for writing, but that I should write for the sake of writing. In trying to write for myself, I always felt the pressure to write about something. Now I’ve learned it is just as good to write about anything, and the something will come about later.

The issue that Elbow raises about editing going on at the same time as writing (5) will be the hardest process to overcome, if I decide to follow Elbow’s method. In fact, I just corrected three spelling mistakes as I wrote the last sentence. It is my nature to fix things as soon as I see them. My brain moves too fast for my fingers to type as it is, so if I didn’t correct as I went along, I may not know what I was trying to say if I wait until later to change it. I fear that if I don’t do some editing as I go, even I won’t know what I’ve written.

The idea of writing as a growing process (12) interests me, but I am not sure that I could thoroughly subscribe to Elbow’s method of writing this way. Writing four drafts in four hours would frustrate me, I think. I am not a person who writes a paper using outlines, or talking points. I often write a paper first, and then develop a thesis statement later. I admit, I get frustrated using note cards or most of the other traditional conventions used in writing a paper. I am more comfortable writing at my computer, making changes as I go, and I am usually satisfied after my second edit. Elbow says, “Meaning is not what you start with but what you end up with. Control, coherence, and knowing your mind are not what you start out with but what you end up with” (15). I do not think that I can wait through several drafts in order to have control, coherence, and meaning. I am a person who needs control surrounding her, even if I am not the one in charge of the control. So to write in a way that lets control come organically seems intimidating and overwhelming for me right now.

The other thoughts I had after reading Elbow is this: I am the daughter of a Catholic Grade School teacher, who has shown me the good and bad sides to teaching. I feel I am going into teaching with my eyes clearly wide open, knowing that everything will not be the way I want it to be. Elbow paints a utopia for writing that I question could be effectively integrated into public school classrooms. I think it would be highly beneficial for students to be able to freewrite three times a week to practice writing. But then, what has to be eliminated or condensed in order to allow that time. Trust me, I am not trying to be cynical, or negative towards what Elbow is talking about; I am only trying to figure out how I could use what he discusses in a real-world practical sense. With so much emphasis on passing tests these days, I wonder how we can use this in a real-world classroom and still meet the requirements to cover the material that will be on those ever-looming tests.

A New Way of Writing and Thinking About Writing

I had so many light bulb, a-ha moments while reading the first two chapters of Elbow’s book. I do wonder how my writing and education experience would have been different if I had been exposed to Elbow’s writing methods earlier.

Freewriting is something I had never really done before. I’ll admit, it felt odd at first when we did it in class on Wednesday. I’m one of those people who can be self-conscious about their writing, even when it’s not shown to other people. It can be quite intimidating at first to just let go and “vomit” on the page. But once I did, I could see the benefits. You are allowed to be much more open with your ideas and you don’t have to censor your thoughts.

Elbow goes through the “typical” writing process and shows where it could be flawed. Almost every point made in that second chapter hit home for me. I never hated writing but the process would frustrate me. Outlines were one thing I always had problems with. I found them limiting rather than helpful. I always had an idea of what I wanted to write and the points I was going to bring up, but that could always change as I began writing. Often, outlines were made weeks before the actual paper was due. That’s plenty of time for my viewpoint on the subject to change or for me to discover new things about the subject. I gave a little cheer when I read this line on page 31: “Whereas when I do get writing, I discover that much of the preparation time was a waste of time.”

The other major a-ha moment for me was when Elbow talked about how the beginning can sometimes be the most difficult part when it comes to traditional writing. Everyone labors over how to make those first few sentences amazing. You struggle and struggle with this at the beginning when you could be focusing more on the rest of the writing and then go back to the beginning when the rest of your paper is fleshed out. This makes compete sense, yet many people do the opposite and become frustrated when those perfect opening sentences don’t appear right away.

As much as Elbow has sold me on his techniques, I do think it will be hard at first to adopt them into my own writing practice. His natural, organic way of writing is so radically different to what I was taught. Like Elbow said on page 32, the traditional model of writing “preaches control.” It’s difficult to give up that control and give in to the writing. But in the end, if Elbow is right, you end up with increased control over your writing.

I Confess, I am a "Pressure Writer"

So, I’ve read books and articles before about the process of writing, and, quite frankly, those experiences made me a little nervous to embark on Elbow. However, I really enjoy his style and he brings up a lot of points with which I can relate.

Freewriting – For the past few weeks I have been stressing about this Writing Portfolio that I need to complete by September 11th as a member of the Secondary Education English Teacher Certification program. Every time I’ve sat down to work on it, I’ve only succeeded in working myself into a ball of anxiety about how ‘perfect’ every sentence has to be. Until reading this section I’d forgotten all about freewriting. I decided to try it based on Elbow’s suggestions and it was helpful. I think that it enabled me to find new ideas and clear some of the clutter out of my brain.

Freewriting is definitely a method I plan to use with my students. As prompts, I might use current events (studies are showing that an alarming number of students in high school are very out of touch with significant political, social and cultural events that are taking place in the world and this may be a way to have them take an interest) or topics of upcoming paper or essay assignments so that they could get a good in-class and encouraging start to a project. I always feel a little more comfortable when a teacher allows me to work on a project in class, even if just for a short time. While I’m there, I’m still “in the moment” and can think of questions I might have. Plus, getting a start, any kind of start, on something makes me feel less anxious.

And getting started is something that gives me some trouble.

Growing – In this chapter, Elbow states, “Whether or not I succeeded in getting something written seemed related only to whether I screwed myself up into some state of frantic emotional intensity” (16). I know exactly what he means. Many other people I talk to do as well. I confess, I’ve been a “pressure writer” for as long as I can remember. I’ve also been fortunate enough to succeed at it, although I doubt it’s done any favors for my physical health.

I think a big reason as to why I’m like this has to do with the way that I was taught to write. Elbow seems to stress more freedom in the process than I can ever recall working with in school. For example, I wasn’t introduced to freewriting until my senior year of high school, and it was in conjunction with a poetry assignment. I was never told that it would be helpful when writing critical analysis papers.

We had a specific approach: You were given an assignment. On a designated date you would hand in a first rough draft that had to meet certain requirements. On another designated date a second draft would be handed in (you may or may not have received feedback from the first one). Then, the final product would be handed in on the due date. I can tell you that my first draft would get done the night or morning before it was due….and so on and so on because up until that point I was so nervous about completing what I had to have to fit the standards of the rough draft. Writing wasn’t fun. When I entered college and wasn’t required to turn in any drafts, I just waited to do the final assignment until the night before it was due.

I think it may be more encouraging for students if less emphasis and pressure is put on standards that need to be met for rough drafts. I don’t think it’s a bad idea to require a rough draft, especially for those who are just beginning to write more professional papers, but maybe the meaning of a rough draft should be expanded. Maybe for some students, a more successful rough draft would be a collection of journal entries from which they’re working to discern a thesis and/or discussion topics. For some students that are more visual, maybe artwork would accompany their thoughts. Maybe it could be incorporated into their paper as well. I think what’s important is to see that students have a clear direction in which they want to take the project, not that all the “t’s are crossed” in the early phases. One of the biggest benefits I received out of this reading is a reminder to emphasize that “meaning is not what you start out with but what you end up with” (15).
My questions to others: What do you think would be good assignments for getting students to relax about writing and enforce this concept of finding your meaning as opposed to beginning with it? Do you even agree with this statement, or do you feel that the opposite is true? If you encounter an administration that wants to focus strictly on a more standard curriculum, how could you go about explaining the importance of allowing flexibility and creativity into the writing process if they are not on the same page as you?